April | 2008 | West Coast Crafty

hats and booties

April 28, 2008 at 12:49 pm | Posted in chatty, crafty events, oregon, projects to do | Leave a comment

I just got the heads up that Lee is teaching an excellent knitting class at Twisted — her short-rows wavy hat project! It’s so cute (I have seen it in person and can attest to this wholeheartedly) and perfect for Northwest spring — she says that it knits up really nicely in cotton as well as wool, depending on your preference. So if you’re looking for the perfect intermediate knitting project, jump on into her class — it’s May 4th and 11th.

Natalie also passed on that CRAFT: is co-hosting a pretty amazing contest: just stitch up some original baby booties using Michael Miller fabrics, add a photo to the contest flickr pool, and you’re entered to win the grand prize: a new Singer Curvy sewing machine, a $100 gift certificate to ReproDepot Fabrics, and a feature on Craftzine.com.

Three runners-up will also receive a Michael Miller Fabrics Fat Quarter Bundle (retail value $80.00) and a $20 gift certificate to ReproDepot. All the details are over at the CRAFT: blog and the winners will be chosen June 30.

I thought that these these darling little booties Diane made for our baby might be nice inspiration for sewing up your own design if you’re contest-bound. Good luck if you enter!

Naughty Secretary Club jewelry sale… and book!

April 27, 2008 at 12:39 pm | Posted in books and mags, chatty, crafty to buy | 1 Comment

Sorry for the short notice but if you haven’t heard, today’s the last day of Jennifer‘s Administrative Professionals Week sale, and she’s even sweetened the deal: You need to shake a tail feather if you want to take advantage of our super duper, holy macramé are you serious, secretaries day sale going on at Naughty Secretary Club. Today is the very last day that you can enter the word SECRETARY into the voucher field and receive 30% off your order. That’s right, I said 30% we upped the ante for the last 3 days of the sale because we are crazy like that!

So of course I had to celebrate my Capricorn-ness with a fancy little necklace and bracelet set! I can’t wait to wear these two out on the town…

Everything on the site is on sale, and you can get free shipping in the US as well. Such a deal — thanks, Jennifer!

ps: if you haven’t heard, she also has an awesome new jewelry-making book coming out — details are here and you can pre-order on Amazon over here. Can’t wait to get my copy!

Bead Simple giveaway at Tiny Choices!

April 24, 2008 at 6:24 pm | Posted in bead simple, books and mags, chatty | Leave a comment

No baby yet, and I’m still chipping away at a tall stack of work that has been keeping me from posting (almost done, thank goodness), but I wanted to quickly mention that my lovely friends Jenn and Karina are offering up a copy of Bead Simple this week over at their fantastic blog, Tiny Choices! Just leave a comment on this entry by Monday, April 28, with a reuse idea for something you already own (there are some fun ones already) and you’re automatically entered to win. Yay, Tiny Choices!

I am so out of it (I got a wicked migraine last night that I’m still slogging through the residue of… not fun at all) but I’ll be back with some actual photos and craft posts very soon. Really!

five free knitting patterns!

April 16, 2008 at 4:01 pm | Posted in projects to do | 3 Comments

I am slammed this week with some quick-turnaround work stuff and need to take a couple of days off from writing for fun, but wanted to quickly pass on this cool thing I saw at not martha: Interweave has put together a free pattern book of the top five knitting patterns that Knitting Daily readers voted for — pretty cool! It’s available to download until May 14 and then it’s gone, so go snap it up while you can.

I have no recent knitting of any type to show off, but I do love this MTA ad I saw on the LA subway last year so I will include that instead… sorry about the horrible picture quality, it is surprisingly hard to take a photo while the train is moving!

sad Adorn news

April 15, 2008 at 2:45 pm | Posted in books and mags, chatty | 11 Comments

As Kayte and Tricia also mentioned today, it’s finally official that Adorn magazine is no more. I’m really sad about it — it was one of my favorite magazines to write for, not to mention to read! I wish things had gone differently with it, but I feel so lucky that I got to contribute writing and crafts for the year and a half that it was out in the world… it was a lot of fun.

The blog and site are now pretty much gone, but the flickr group is still active if you want to check that out for crafty inspiration. I was especially disappointed that the spring issue never saw the light of day — including an article I wrote on Jill Bliss and Amanda Soule and their super-inspiring studio spaces. So now I’ll just be writing about each of them in other places, including here later this week.

p.s. for anyone who has subscription questions — I’ve heard that you can try calling Soho at (877) 860-6164.

ETA: just wanted to link over to Linda’s post on the subject and echo her excellent advice — and I couldn’t agree more that it was a great experience, and a really nice thing to be part of and enjoy while it lasted.

(finally) settling into the house

April 14, 2008 at 2:45 pm | Posted in chatty, house crafty | 1 Comment

We moved in in late December, but this weekend was really the first time I’ve felt like we’re really settled into our house. We did a lot of rearranging and putting things up and away and now that our record player has been fixed and we can play records (yay!) it’s just feeling so great to be here… of course there is plenty left to do and not that much pre-baby time to do it in, but I am so excited to have even this much done.

We won this painting at the Buckman Bash this weekend, which was generously donated by the artist, Justin “Scrappers” Morrison — I love it! It’s already up in the dining room making me happy.

And we finally got to focus on the living room this weekend after a few months of benign neglect and it’s so great to see some favorite things again. I’ll just post a few photos for now:

I heart the Berkleys

April 11, 2008 at 12:58 pm | Posted in art and craft, chatty, crafty events, oregon | 4 Comments

I adore Ryan and Lucy Berkley — they are a super talented couple in addition to being the sweetest, friendliest pair around. I first met Ryan when he illustrated Super Crafty for us in 2004, and it has been such a treat to enjoy his gorgeous artwork ever since. Lucy does amazing photography and I treasure the pieces I have of hers… and now the Berkleys have started a new blog called Let’s Share that’s just as lovely as they are.

Andrew and I were recently the lucky recipients of the most wonderful baby gift: Ryan surprised us by illustrating our family as a trio of cardinals, with a space left to add our baby girl’s name when she arrives this month! I just love them. I grew up in North Carolina, where the state bird and flower are the cardinal and the dogwood, so I had talked to him awhile back about commissioning a piece featuring the two of them together. Lucy remembered all the little details from our conversation, so my little cardinal-lady alter ego has a dogwood blossom on her lacy collar… love it. Such a fantastic and thoughtful present!

So today when I stopped by the Buckman Art Show + Sell today to bring a signed copy of Bead Simple and a raku pot from our friend Russell Mott to add to the silent auction (which is killer… seriously, make sure you have a chance to stop by and browse all the work!), I spotted this lovely Lady Squirrel print that the Berkleys had donated. And since I’ll be a few blocks away at the Buckman Bash all evening, I asked if I could put in a bid early… and got the chance to snap it up outright. Sorry, everyone else in Portland, but I couldn’t resist, and now this beautiful piece is going up in the baby’s room along with her cardinal friends!

If you want to see more of Ryan and Lucy’s work, they will have originals and prints at the Buckman Art Show + Sell this weekend, and will be selling at Crafty Wonderland on Sunday. If you’re out of town, or can’t make it by those events, definitely check out their Etsy shops: Berkley Illustration and Lucybird Photo… and their flickrs are pretty awesome too! Viva Berkleys!

Crafty Wonderland turns two!

April 10, 2008 at 3:06 pm | Posted in crafty events, oregon | 2 Comments

ugh, I’ve had a day full of nitpicky web design details, closely followed by the last bits and pieces of our taxes/2007 IRAs, and now I’m on the verge of falling over. Good thing I have the Buckman Bash and then Crafty Wonderland to look forward to this weekend…

And CW is turning two! Wow, I remember the very first one, and it’s so cool that it’s been two whole years since Cathy and Torie started it up. To celebrate, there will be cupcakes to decorate at the DIY table… yum!

Some of my favorite Portland vendors will be selling, too: Lucy + Ryan Berkley, Totinette, Bossa Nova Baby, Monsieur T., and Mugwump, along with dozens of others. And The Weekend Store is visiting too!

Hope to see you over there, but if you can’t make it, I hope your weekend involves a cupcake and no taxes of any kind. The 16th can’t come soon enough for me!

thank you!

April 9, 2008 at 4:06 pm | Posted in bead simple, books and mags, chatty, crafty events, oregon | 7 Comments

I had such a great time at Powell’s on Monday — thank you so much for the good-luck wishes, and to everyone who came out to make earrings with me. It was such a fun night! I loved seeing all the sparkly things that people made and it was fantastic to meet so many new crafty people.

First, I chatted a little bit about beading and jewelry design and showed a few pieces from the book from the forty or so I had out on display.

I have such a goofy expression on my face here, but what can I say, I was showing off one of my favorite designs ever, created by my nephew Julian! He was five when he made this necklace and I absolutely love it.

Then I asked my lovely Portland guest designers to come up so I could introduce them and show their gorgeous designs too… left to right are Bethe Mack, Tanja Alger, Caitlin Troutman, Diane Gilleland, and Torie Nguyen. Thank you, ladies!

I did a quick earrings how-to, and then everyone got to choose their vintage beads and pick up their jewelry kits…

…and people jumped right into making their pieces. My friend Ryan even created a fancy sparkly necklace using pipe cleaners and 24mm pink faceted beads!

I got to chat with so many people, admire lots of new designs, and even sign some books. I think this is one of the few moments I was sitting down all night… that was nice, I have to admit.

There are a good handful of photos from the event in the Bead Simple flickr pool… thank you so much to Lee and Andrew for snapping these great ones. And for another review of the whole thing, be sure to check out the guest blogger over at paperdollygirl, who created an especially gorgeous pair of earrings himself!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who came out to get crafty with me and to Powell’s — it was so much fun to get to celebrate the book together. I’m so looking forward to doing it again at Church of Craft, Crafty Wonderland, and Twisted! Just give me a couple of months to have this baby in the meantime, and I’ll see you later in the summer for sure.